The majority of claimants suing Royal Bank of Scotland at the High Court have indicated a willingness to settle the action, a judge has been told.
The news was announced at a brief hearing in London on Tuesday.
Mr Justice Hildyard was told discussions between the claimants and the defendants were making significant progress.
Jonathan Nash QC, for the claimants, told the judge: "The present position is that the majority of claimants have indicated their willingness to accept the latest offer from the defendant.
"There now appears to be a good prospect that within the course of today the remaining claimants, or nearly all, will confirm they will also agree in principle so as to bring a practical end to the proceedings."
The judge granted an agreed adjournment until Wednesday morning for talks to continue.
The much-anticipated 14-week civil case was due to begin on Monday, but at the outset of the proceedings the judge gave the go-ahead for the start of the trial to be put back a day for settlement negotiations to be continued.
He granted a further adjournment at the resumed hearing.
The legal action centres on a rights issue overseen by former boss Fred Goodwin in April 2008 when RBS asked existing shareholders to pump £12 billion into the bank after leading a consortium that spent £49 billion on Dutch lender ABN Amro.
Shareholders claimed they were left nursing hefty losses following the cash call after RBS shares plunged 90% and the Government was forced to step in when the deal turned toxic.
The judge, granting a further adjournment, said:"There is obvious interest in the court in seeking to facilitate a full and final settlement agreeable to the parties."
But he pointed out it was also important that the court's time was not was not taken up idly with adjournments and there had to be a "realistic timetable".
He said:"There will come a time when the claimants must simply realise that it is incumbent on them to make up their minds whether to continue with the litigation."
Mr Nash said, barring "unforeseen developments", an adjournment of a day would be sufficient.
He also said if the trial had to go ahead the parties were confident the case could be heard within the allotted time.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel